Wilder v Arreola: An Opinion

As we all know from Monday evenings announcement (UK time) that one of the worst kept secrets in boxing is out the bag with the announcement of Deontay Wilder v Chris Arreola. The fight will be for Deontay’s WBC Heavyweight title and will take place in Wilder’s home state of Alabama.

The WBC is further ruining its reputation along with the other organisations with how political situations affect the sport. Deontay was due to face Alexander Povetkin in his mandatory defence in Moscow, Russia in May. However the fight was postponed due to Meldonium being found in Povetkin’s drug test samples. The levels of which suggested that 0.07 Nano grams were found in his system and after further testing the samples came back clear. WADA has suggested to itself that further research into the drug and how it behaves in the system of a human being. Since then Povetkin has since been cleared and legal action has begun from both camps. This is a situation which will get complicated and messy.

My issue with the WBC is not the fact that a voluntary defence has been granted but the approval of a defence against an aging Arreola , who has arguably lost two of his last three fights. The fact of the matter is the fight will not be competitive and is no way to treat the fans of the sport into sanctioning mismatches for world titles. The WBC should have granted a voluntary defence and only have sanctioned the bout against a top 10/15 contender in their rankings at the time of the postponement announcement by themselves. This would have gave Wilder a reputable defence, the WBC props for insisting on a highly ranked fighter to face their champion. But this has simply not happened with the inclusion of Arreola in today’s WBC rankings (15/6/2016). How much longer will people take the BS from this organisation? it will take a revolution within the sport to oust corruption of powerful individuals who are quite happy to let things slide.

Everyone should be doing better and at least everyone should know better.